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I am asking this because I am trying to read an old book of James Patterson, who writes thrillers/horror. This one seems to be a dud so far: "Black Friday." From 1986. First published as "Black Market."
I am going into Chapter 14(they are short chapters) but by now most of his books should have gotten my attention in a good way. Usually by the first or second page. I guess some of his earlier works aren't the best...
How many chapters will you suffer through to try to get into a book before you toss it? Or do you just keep reading in hopes it will get better?
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I have read almost everything by James Michener. I liked all of his novels but two or three of them were difficult reading for the first couple hundred pages (The Source & Hawaii) but worth it.
How many chapters will you suffer through to try to get into a book before you toss it? Or do you just keep reading in hopes it will get better?
If the book is truly terrible, I mean just painful to read, I usually drop it after 5-10 pages.
If the book is just sorta so-so, not holding my attention but not truly awful, I try to give it 100 pages, because I have read books where I thought the first 100 pages or so was a total snooze, but after that they became great. Stephen King's Bag of Bones comes to mind in that regard.
If it is a James Patterson book, I usually leave it on the shelf to begin with.
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I have read almost everything by James Michener. I liked all of his novels but two or three of them were difficult reading for the first couple hundred pages (The Source & Hawaii) but worth it.
GL2
I read James Michener's books years ago. I have always liked most of James Pattersons books, and since Black Friday is an early one, it could be he didn't get into his mojo yet.
Usually I can scan a bit before even taking on a book and get a picture of the style and mileu of a book. I eliminate a lot of bummers that way. It is amazing how much junk gets published. But even some good stuff just isn't my cup of tea---fantasy for instance.
When reading a new author I will drop it pretty fast if it isn't keeping me page turning and the characters and dialogue are trite. (The blonde shapely head-turning heroine, the male figure who went to Harvard, served in the Marines, flies his own plane, works for the CIA, and overpowers the room--yuck! I want characters who struggle with being less than perfect.) This can be determined in the first two chapters.
But when I am reading an author I have emjoyed in the past, I tend to give him way too much time and slough on for chapter after chapter until about half-way through. I don't recommend this--I think when you put it down and don't feel eager to pick it up that is a sign right there--I am going to try to follow that for myself--as someone said, there is too much worthwhile to read to waste time on the crap filling the shelves.
I read James Michener's books years ago. I have always liked most of James Pattersons books, and since Black Friday is an early one, it could be he didn't get into his mojo yet.
I loved every one of Michener's books, but I knew going in that I was going to get the complete history of say, Hawaii, and I was fine with it. I can't even imagine the time that went into researching his books.
I used to be like this. If I bought the book, I read the book, no matter what, dammit!
Perhaps, like me, you're curious as to how it ends so you take a deep breath and keep on keepin' on.
I solved that problem, though. I'm still curious but, if the book is more effort than enjoyment, I just read the last two pages. Even if it doesn't "solve the mystery," it ruins the book completely. At that point, it's easy to just toss aside.
That's it, exactly! I am curious about the end and I do hope it'll get better. I always believed it was cheating to peek at the end, but hey, I'm the only one that'll know. And I'm not telling! So if I'm that curious and still don't want to finish it I will now skip to the end. Sorry Sister Bernadette. (Freshman English teacher!)
I am asking this because I am trying to read an old book of James Patterson, who writes thrillers/horror. This one seems to be a dud so far: "Black Friday." From 1986. First published as "Black Market."
I am going into Chapter 14(they are short chapters) but by now most of his books should have gotten my attention in a good way. Usually by the first or second page. I guess some of his earlier works aren't the best...
How many chapters will you suffer through to try to get into a book before you toss it? Or do you just keep reading in hopes it will get better?
Not more than two or three chapters usually. Funny story. I have a friend who kept telling me I HAD to read Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsovler. I like Kingsolver so I tried, I really tried, but it was so dull I couldn't get through more than a few chapters after the Prologue.
A few years later she again brought up Poisonwood Bible and insisted if I kept at it I would love it so I tried again. Honestly, just thinking about the book made my eyes roll in my head, but I tried, and again could not get past the first fourth of the book. She kept saying "But the last third of the book is so good" but I just couldn't get through it. The book is about 1200 pages long so am I going to read 800 pages of mind numbing tediousness to get 400 of so good?
Then a few years later another friend of mine, a man this time e mailed me that he was reading Poisonwood Bible and he was enjoying it so much he wanted me to read it too, so we would be reading it together, we often do this. I had a chuckle, but thought oh what the heck and tried again. Same thing happened, my brain went numb with boredom by the third chapter. LOL!
There are so many books, life is just too short to struggle through something you don't like, when reading for pleasure.
Last edited by catsmom21; 05-21-2011 at 07:45 AM..
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Quote:
Originally Posted by laplante
I'm like you, even until now, except that for me it's not about pride. I can't quite pinpoint what it is that makes me suffer til the end, but I always finish what I started. It's become a habit now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by altadena
That's it, exactly! I am curious about the end and I do hope it'll get better. I always believed it was cheating to peek at the end, but hey, I'm the only one that'll know. And I'm not telling! So if I'm that curious and still don't want to finish it I will now skip to the end. Sorry Sister Bernadette. (Freshman English teacher!)
Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I keep plugging, hoping that it will get better. Then, I get to the end and ask myself why I wasted all that time reading such drivel!
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